BJP’s ‘acquisition strategy’ in Goa could boomerang: experts

The party’s cynical use of regional parties sees GFP and MGP talking of a broad ‘anti-BJP’ front

Ever since the Bharatiya Janata Party began laying its roots in Goa in the mid-1990s, the party has had a history of forging alliances with regional parties and later jettisoning them once their utility had served its purpose.

The Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) — the coastal State’s oldest indigenous party — was at one time the BJP’s ‘elder brother’, much like the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra.

Despite being ideologically aligned with the BJP, the MGP’s attrition has been dramatic after 1999. It climaxed in the former poaching two of MGP’s three MLAs in 2019 and sacking Sudin Dhavalikar, the MGP’s senior leader as Goa’s Deputy Chief Minister.